When I was a kid in Maplewood, New Jersey, our next-door neighbor was a feisty Irish widow named Anne Byrne.  (She was related to our former Governor, Brendan Byrne, but I forget how.)  When I would do something stupid, which usually involved putting some kind of ball through one of her windows, she would grab

A few years back, a major financial institution retained us to review its insurance coverage program. After checking the main items I usually look for, I asked the Risk Manager whether the heads of the organization’s various business units knew the basics of the notice provisions in the company’s major coverages. I could see her

“For want of a shoe, the horse was lost,” goes the old saying.  If you handle claims from the policyholder side, nothing will aggravate you more than seeing a perfectly good claim go awry because of poor risk management controls in an organization, especially the failure to give notice under potentially applicable insurance policies.

The

Lawyers and insurance companies are forever reserving their rights.  Sometimes I think it’s a reflex action against ever being forced to take an actual position.  But in the world of insurance coverage, “reservation of rights” letters do serve a function. Insurance companies fear that if they undertake the investigation or defense of a claim, for example

In my experience, there are three main reasons why companies delay in giving notice to their carriers of potentially covered claims.  First, the underlying suit is an “oddball,” such as an intellectual property claim, that the risk manager thinks isn’t covered.  Second, the company is worried that its premiums will rise.  Third, the person responsible